BLOOD – Part 3

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Hello Wonderful Readers,

Thank you for coming back to read the final episode of this series BLOOD! 

We at Thoughts of a Medstudent hope we have been able to entertain you during these past weeks.

Let us quickly remind you of the characters that have featured in the Series thus far, as this may play a big role in your understanding of this last episode. 

1. Ada – the main character who appears to have been attacked, but by whom? Why?

2. Chigozie – Ada’s younger sister who shared her understanding of the event here.

3. Akin – the Gateman, who finds Ada in a pool of blood, his narrative is here.

4. Chief Okeke and his wife – Ada’s parents who are late, but however mentioned.

5. Chief Adeleye – Chief Okeke’s very good friend and also a big admirer of Ada.

Now read and Enjoy! 

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 The first time I saw my own blood, I was three. I had been playing in my mother’s sewing room after she had stepped out of the room to check the Oha soup she left to boil and had forgotten to close the door after her. I had slipped into the room and began to explore the items that lay carelessly on the table, the floor, everywhere. I lifted the pink thread that bore so many needles on it and had thrown it and watched it roll, following it until it went under the huge wooden cupboard that held all her fabrics. Seeing as my toy had been trapped by the cupboard, I began to search for a new item to play with, and there it was, a richly black flat object, they called it a ‘blade’, as I picked it up, I was amazed at the way it so nicely stayed on my palm and felt so sleek, so I turned it this way and that until, I felt a sting and saw blood over my left index finger, I screamed and screamed, until my mother came in and put my finger in her mouth to suck the blood out, then she got Vaseline and a brown plaster to cover the cut. 

When I was twelve, I remember seeing my own blood yet again. I was sitting out on the verandah, it was after dinner, and I had just begun my new routine of sitting out on the verandah and getting lost in my thoughts. I would think about my mother and how I wanted to be like her, a fashion designer; I wanted to live in the high brow area of Lagos, I wanted a house similar to what my father had, a beautiful verandah, where I could watch the sun rise and set, watch the neighborhood (and maybe take a picture or two, I couldn’t do this in my Father’s house), rock in a chair sipping a drink every now and then as beautiful designs swamped my mind. Away in my thoughts, I felt a lumpy feel in my lower tummy, then a gripping pain that was gone sooner than it came, and then an urge to urinate. I stood up breaking my beautiful routine, to go to the toilet, wondering what about the dinner could be causing me such pain, as I pulled my panties, I saw, distinctly a brownish red stain and I knew just what it was, I was now a woman. I have seen my own blood often after then; every month at about the same time. 
Every now and then, I see my own blood, sometimes, all I need do is suck the blood up and place Vaseline over the cut and a plaster if need be and I am good to go.
Last week, I saw my blood for the last time, I was home sitting on my verandah like I love to, I am indeed a very routine person, a glass of water in my hand, on looking, away in my thoughts and listening to honking cars as they drove to the front of their houses and waited as a man stationed at the gate came to open, usually he was called “Gateman” or by his first name as the residents of the house chose. We have one of such in my house, he was usually donning khaki short and blue shirt or orange shirt, I never saw him wear anything else, and it was usually the blue, until I got him the Orange shirt for Christmas last year, we called him Akin.
“Akin! Akin!” I had called out, he came running towards me, his knees white and dry, one before the other, and he was wearing the orange shirt.

‘Madam! I am here, any wahala?’

“Oh no, no problem, I just want you to check that vulcanizer down the road, for my tyres he was meant to patch” I said as I reached for my purse and counted a few Naira notes, rolling them and handing it to Akin.

“Help me collect the tyre if he is done and pay him”
Akin was only a few minutes out the gates, when the gates came flying open again, I looked up, as a dark man in black shirt and black pants came in, he was inmmediately followed by a very tall man wearing a similar ensemble.

“Who are you? Who are you looking for? What do you want?” I let the questions come out in a rush, as I could feel my heart throbbing. 

I stood at the verandah, wandering what they wanted, if they were there to harm me, if anyone would hear me scream.
I used to like my father’s house growing up without the tall gates, I could sit at the verandah and see far into the street, the kids playing, the women returning from the market, the cars passing. Every house was just like that, until the declining security situation necessitated a gate, and so every household, saved up money and bought themselves tall gates, the taller, the safer.

As the men approached me, I knew most definitely that something wasn’t right, I thought to run into the house and remembered, that I would require to open it with the key, that would take a while, I could run for the gates, I thought, where people would see me, and then that sounded like a more brilliant idea.

I walked out of the verandah, trying not to give away my plan, trying to act cool, I walked like I was approaching the men to talk, but as I got closer to them, I began to run, I ran faster and faster towards the gates, I looked back towards the men, they held a gun towards me, but they didn’t shoot. As I victoriously got towards the gate, it yet again flung open. “Akin!” I screamed.
He shot me once…. Then again…. And again…. And again

“Shut your mouth Ada, shut your mouth!”

I laid on the floor, starring as the men walked away, the shooter and his men, it was Chief Adeleye.

“Shut your mouth Ada, shut your mouth!”

And there I laid, in a pool of my own blood, I couldn’t suck this one away and place a soothing Vaseline and a plaster and be good to go. I laid by the gate, watching blood flow from me, mixing with the dirt and appearing seemingly dark , or was it the descending night darkness.

One more time, the gates flung open, I tried to mutter a name, but the words just wouldn’t come out, I tried to move, my hands maybe, I cannot be so sure, I know however, that I couldn’t move a single bit of my body.

This must be how it feels to die, worse to die in a pool of your own blood.
But that was a week ago, today, I am putting one cloth on top of the other, I am leaving my sewing machine behind, the one I inherited from my mother, I am leaving the car behind, the one I worked so hard to buy two years ago, I am leaving the house behind, I am leaving life behind, I am dying, except not in a pool of my own blood.
Chief Adeleye would stop at nothing to become Governor of the state, even if it involves personally burying evidence of  his misdeeds to young girls, girls wrongfully defiled, betraying the trust of their parents.

“Shut your mouth Ada, shut your mouth!”

“Akin, the lawyer, would come tomorrow for the keys!”

‘Madam, when are you coming back’

“I don’t know!”
I turned away, holding my side, I can still feel the pain in it. I am throwing my things into the taxi waiting outside, he was not my usual taxi man, I didn’t trust anyone to keep my whereabout a secret, I feared soon Chief Adeleye would find out I had survived his attack and come looking for me.

‘Ada, when are you coming back?’ Never!

Edited by Edward Dibia. 

Thank you all for reading,  please leave your thoughts on BLOOD.